Next time someone asks you what the Harvard “rush” process is like, don’t think Cambridge Alphi Phi or final club punch. Think eight crazy-talented groups of Harvard students hand-selected through a week-long process semi-affectionately called “Hell Week.” Think acapella. Replace bid day with Final Night, socializing with singing, and you have Harvard’s high-intensity, high-reward acapella rush process.
Students compete to join eight groups in total, ranging from the Harvard Krokodiloes (an all-male group that specializes in jazz and is also the oldest of the groups) to the Opportunes (a co-ed group that sings pop and recently released an EP on Spotify).
The groups specialize in a variety of musical styles, with three focusing on jazz and the other five specializing in contemporary music. Most groups rehearse for around ten hours a week, with the time commitment increasing around performances and annual tours. The audition process to join a group is that weekly schedule on steroids.
Hell Week takes place the second week of each semester—if you’re auditioning for a group, it is when your classes and everything else takes a backseat and acapella takes center stage. Groups host four nights of auditions, up to ten hours a day. Each morning, auditioners learn which groups called them back for more auditions and find out which songs they must audition with that same night. They spend the day preparing, and each night, they return to auditions and perform.
Outside of auditions, each auditioner is paired with a “buddy” in each group. Potential members are encouraged to meet with their buddy outside of auditions for advice and guidance through the process, as well as to get to know the group better. And on Final Night, the culmination of Hell Week, the auditioners and groups rank each other in a matching process that is all too familiar to fans of ‘Bama rush’ Tik Tok. During Hell Week, acapella becomes a full-time job for the auditioners and current members.
Most who went through the process, whether they ended up joining a group, felt the overwhelm of the process sink in from the start. A first-year who auditioned this year but did not make it to Final Night said the groups expected you to “prioritize that above everything else.” She felt that she “couldn’t do it all at once,” and felt pressure to drop other commitments and comps to dedicate more time to acapella.
The acapella groups demand a lot from their auditioners, perhaps a way of preparing them for what’s to come if they join a group. At the same time, the process creates a pressure that may exclude students who want to pursue other commitments, thus narrowing the audition pool.
Students described the pressure to meet the groups’ high standards as intense. “There was no room to mess up,” said Gauri Sood ’26, who did not join a group this year. She explained that the groups did not present any overt messages of pressure, but those auditioning knew who they were up against—an abundance of singing and musical talent on Harvard’s campus.
Liza de Figueiredo ‘26, who joined the Harvard Lowkeys this semester, said she spent an unimaginable amount of time on acapella during Hell Week, estimating she spent around seven hours of each day meeting with members from the groups, learning new songs, and performing at auditions. Despite the high time commitment of the week, she emphasized that the process “bonded us together, running back and forth from auditions.” She made fast friends through the week and found enjoyment in the process itself.
Although the process is time-consuming and stressful, those who auditioned felt it measured their ability fairly. Because each auditioner is given the same songs to choose from and the same amount of time to learn them, the process ensures auditioners are given equal chances to display their talent and skill. As de Figueiredo ‘26 said: “because everyone was put under the same time crunch, it was a pretty even playing field.”
Yet the innately competitive nature of the process inevitably excludes students. The groups only accept one or two new members each year, keeping their membership small. Though this supports the close-knit culture that the members of the groups value, it also excludes those who want to partake in competitive collegiate acapella during their time at Harvard.
The first-year who auditioned this year shared, “it was my first awakening that even though you’re in Harvard, Harvard is still all about maintaining that elitism.”
Sachi Laumas ‘26 (slaumas@college.harvard.edu) loves to sing, but really isn’t that good.